Project Summary

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The Umatilla Fisheries Restoration Program is a comprehensive plan to re-establish salmon runs and enhance summer steelhead runs in the Umatilla River basin. Projects associated with this plan include artificial production, new ladders and screens, fish trap and haul, and stream habitat and flow enhancement. The Umatilla Basin artificial production program consists of Umatilla Hatchery for fish production and satellite facilities for adult holding and spawning and juvenile acclimation/release. As fisheries co-managers, ODFW currently operates the Umatilla Hatchery and CTUIR, under this project, operates the satellite facilities.

Bonifer, Minthorn, Imeques C-mem-ini-kem, Thornhollow, and Pendleton were completed in 1983, 1985, 1994, 1995, and 1999, respectively, and are used for temporary holding (acclimation) and release of juvenile salmon and steelhead. Minthorn is also used to hold and spawn adult summer steelhead collected from Three Mile Dam on the Umatilla River. Three Mile Dam Adult Holding and Spawning Facility was completed in 1996 and is currently used to hold and spawn fall Chinook adults. The South Fork Walla Walla Adult Holding and Spawning Facility was completed in 1997 and is used to hold and spawn spring Chinook adults. The operation of these facilities is closely coordinated with ODFW and is detailed in the Umatilla Hatchery and Basin Annual Operation Plan.

Project Goal

This project provides for the operation and maintenance of both juvenile and adult satellite facilities. The goal of the project is to assist in achievement of Umatilla Basin adult salmon and steelhead return goals by increasing smolt-to-adult survival/returns through acclimation of juvenile salmon and steelhead in natural production areas in the Umatilla River basin and operating adult holding and spawning facilities to provide salmon and steelhead eggs for the Umatilla production.

The proponents answered the ISRP’s questions satisfactorily. Mostly the questions were more appropriate for other projects, not the Facilities Operations project. However, the proponents answered that (1) the program is taking a stepping stone approach toward developing segregated harvest and conservation stocks, (2) acclimation is widely accepted as effective, (3) a self sustaining natural population is a goal of the subbasin plan even though progress toward it is problematic, and (4) even if adequate harvest cannot be provided by a self sustaining natural population, harvest is a goal of artificial production.

This project is a large effort to produce, acclimate, and hold juvenile and adult Chinook, coho, and steelhead to support both conservation goals and harvest in the Umatilla River basin. The focus of the proposal is on the numbers of fish produced or held and outplanted, whereas the overall goal is to develop self-sustaining runs of anadromous salmonids which can sustain harvest. Verified tests were not apparent, such as whether holding juveniles increases survival and homing, or whether the overall goal of self-sustaining populations has been met, or will be in the future. Moreover, production of Harvest fish often far exceeds production of those for Conservation (e.g., of spring Chinook), which raises the question of whether these efforts are creating demand by fishers that cannot be met by self-sustaining runs in the future.

A response is requested on the following four items:

1. Have there been tests of acclimation? Does holding juveniles at satellite sites actually increase survival and homing?

2. Will the goal of self sustaining populations be met in the future? Have the project’s efforts in acclimation and outplanting resulted in successful supplementation, i.e. naturalized spawning?

3. Will the demand for harvestable fish ever be met by self sustaining runs?

4. In “Response to Past ISRP and Council Comments and Recommendations” the proposal states that new information has been derived, and the program has been tuned to support goals of the co-managers through BMPs. The information has been presented by the Umatilla Hatchery M&E project. Has this information been presented in written reports?

The ISRP review of the entire Umatilla program in 2006 (ISRP 2007-15) noted that the program had not achieved its salmon or steelhead goals for either escapement or harvest and raised the concern “whether the long-term fitness of the (steelhead) population that has been supplemented has deteriorated from interbreeding with fish that have had parents (or grandparents) reared in a hatchery.” The ISRP recommended that the hatchery production components of the program “consider modifying the spring Chinook and steelhead program goals and eliminating the fall Chinook program.”

In response to this recommendation and in response to an HSRG review, the Umatilla program changed production methods in 2009 to create two groups of smolts, a “Conservation” group derived from natural origin returns and a “Harvest” group of smolts derived from hatchery origin returns. The two groups are to be reared and released at separate locations, the “Harvest” group low in the watershed where returning adults are expected to be vulnerable to fisheries and the “Conservation” group high in the watershed where returning adults are expected to be less vulnerable to fisheries and in better spawning habitat. The assumption is that the “Conservation” group, relatively relieved of harvest pressure and sustained primarily by natural origin returns, will over generations adapt to the habitat high in the watershed and ultimately naturalize as a self sustaining population in the river.

The BiOp RM&E Workgroups made the following determinations regarding the proposal's ability or need to support BiOp Research, Monitoring and Evaluation (RME) RPAs. If you have questions regarding these RPA association conclusions, please contact your BPA COTR and they will help clarify, or they will arrange further discussion with the appropriate RM&E Workgroup Leads. BiOp RPA associations for the proposed work are: (0) All Questionable RPA Associations (0) and All Deleted RPA Associations (64.2)

The project sponsors are to work with the Council and others to structure an ISRP/Council review of the coordinated subbasin activities in the Umatilla at some point in the next two years.. The budget adjustment reflects that the original proposal had embedded in its budget a contract to Little White Hatchery for $147,000 to produce 210k spring chinook. This production will shift to the Umatilla Hatchery. However, a $40,000 contract is required to finish production on hand in FY07.

This project is part of the larger Umatilla Program and comments associated with Project 199000500 apply (also see ISRP comments on the "Umatilla Initiative" under proposal 198343600). A useful project review will only result from an intensive review of the overall program, a review that is not possible in the time available for the present review.

The supplementation program remains a concern to the ISRP. There is concern that the whole system will be comprised of fish derived from supplementation, as more and more hatchery fish spawn in the wild. The practice continues in spite of the fact that supplementation, as an ecosystem experiment, remains untested and unproven.

It is not clear that the identified personnel needs are just for the satellite facilities? If so, the budget seems high.